The Story Of Ichigo Kurosaki
by XBitez
Summary: The Story Of Ichigo Kurosaki. This Includes his friends, as well as his love life. Written in third person format, limited to only Ichigo's thoughts. Starts as IchiRuki, but will change in the future.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note  
1. Some of the things in this story are different from the actual Bleach story, as you will find out when you get farther into the story.  
2. I do NOT own Bleach or any part of it. Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo. If I did own Bleach, the storyline definitely would not be half as good, and I would've killed off half the characters, as well as adding some romance to the story.

* * *

1/26  
*Yawn* Awakening from the depths of his foggy slumber, Ichigo Kurosaki stumbled over to his desk and slammed his hand down onto the alarm clock to stop the incessant beeping. Rubbing his tired eyes, he stumbled to his wardrobe, got dressed, grabbed some breakfast, and departed for his first class sometime later. He walked towards the spot where Rukia and her friends usually hung out in the morning, but not finding her there, he continued on, opening the door to the second floor.  
He figured he'd hang out with Inoue, as she was one of his best friends. As Ichigo ventured towards Orihime, he found that she was with Hisagi.  
'No surprise there,' Ichigo thought. 'After all, she does like him, and more than that, they're good friends.'  
Ichigo pondered whether or not to make things awkward, but decided against it, remembering that Orihime had told him to stay out of her love life. The reason being, that even though Hisagi knew how Inoue felt about him, he (not to mention everyone else involved) was unsure as to whether as to whether he liked her or not. Either way, they'd still be friends.  
Approaching Orihime, he talked to her about the exam they were about to take.  
"So did you study?" asked Orihime.  
"Well ya . . . but then I watched a movie." Ichigo answered.  
"Nice." Orihime smirked.  
The conversation continued on until the late bell for class was about to ring and they had to go their separate ways. Inoue and Hisagi hugged goodbye, which caused Ichigo to grin, thinking how cute they were together, and how sweet it was that they always said goodbye with a hug. Fortunately, Ichigo and Orihime had the same class together every morning, so they could continue their conversation until the morning announcements began blaring out over the school.

* * *

After the exam, there was a 10 minute break before you were expected to arrive at your next class. Ichigo left class in a hurry to seek out Rukia. As they approached each other, Ichigo gave a shy smile to Rukia, which was returned by a shy smile on her part as well. Walking up to her, he slipped his hand gently into hers, lacing their fingers together, and giving her hand a squeeze. They made conversation on the way to Rukia's next class. As they said goodbye, they embraced each other in a hug.  
"I love you," Ichigo whispered.  
"I love you too," Rukia happily replied.  
After this exchange, Ichigo walked back to his first period class, to find Hisagi waiting outside for Orihime, who was still inside. Orihime soon came out, and Hisagi and Ichigo proceeded to walking her to her next class. They joined up with Isane on the way.  
"Now you have three people walking you to class," joked Ichigo. "Nothing can get past us."  
"Unless of course, someone comes at me from the side that no one is guarding," replied Orihime.  
Ichigo rolled his eyes. Isane soon departed for her class, but Kurosaki, as well as Hisagi, continued to walk with Inoue.  
"So, Ichigo, what'd you do to your hand there, huh?" Hisagi pried.  
Ichigo's hand had several bandages on it, as he had been martial arts training; and when he woke up a few days ago, his wounds were inflamed and swollen. He explained this to his friends, who nodded. Somehow they got on the top of jujitsu techniques, and Ichigo explained to them the one he currently knew best.  
"You do this when they throw a right punch. First, you throw up your left block to stop the punch. Then with your right hand, you make an eagle beak by sticking out your index or middle knuckle slightly. Jab them in the nose with this, and then rip your eagle beak fist down their chest. This hurts a lot more than you might think.  
"Next, you hit them in the crotch with your ridge hand, which is where you move your thumb aside and hit with the lowest knuckle on your index finger in a karate chop like fashion.  
"After that, you move your left arm, which you had maintained the block with up to their shoulder and push hard while grabbing the back of their knee with your right hand," Ichigo explained.  
He then explained a jujitsu technique he once used consisting of putting one leg in back of theirs and driving them backwards, preferably with a chop to the neck. From there, they'd fall backwards over your leg.  
"Hey, I'd probably fall for it!" smiled Orihime.  
They all hugged, and departed for their next class, which was only 15 minutes, due to the fact that the time taken for the exam was subtracted from the length of the next period.  
Not much happened in that 15 minutes, as it mostly consisted of people listening to music. Following suite, Ichigo whipped out his mp3 player and proceeded to rock out to Melodic Death Metal. After class was dismissed, Ichigo went to lunch. Thankfully, today he had lunch with Rukia, his girlfriend.  
December 4th had been the day of boldness on Ichigo's part, as that was the day he asked Rukia out. Fortunately for him, she had said "yes". As they walked down the hallway together, now a couple, it was almost agonizing not to reach out and grab Rukia's hand, but Ichigo did not want to run the risk of taking things too fast. Since that day was a Friday, the two lovers were separated by a long weekend. When they saw each other again that Monday, they greeted each other with a long hug, and as he walked her to class, he grabbed her hand.  
Their first kiss together was a beautiful thing. Rukia had wanted it to be memorable, so Ichigo let her pick the time and place. Soon after, they were finally alone together. Right as they were about to kiss, however, they heard footsteps coming closer. Rukia held a finger to her lips, mouthing 'Be Quiet Ichigo.' When the footsteps finally subsided, Rukia leaned in and kissed Ichigo fully on the lips for about half a second. It was the best thing Ichigo had felt in his life. Afterwards was when he first learned what "ecstasy" was. First, he felt nothing, but then his heart began to beat faster and faster, until he could no longer control the pace. His hands began to shake visibly, and his knees went weak. Soon even his legs were shaking. In fact, before long, Ichigo's whole body was shaking in pure ecstasy. He went to Rukia, who was in the same state, and showed her what he felt. It was a very happy day for the adorable couple. The next few times they kissed, Ichigo felt ecstasy, but it was gradually growing weaker, and soon subsided.  
Then, a few weeks or happiness and secret sharing later, something went terribly wrong. Rukia and Ichigo had been separated for a number of weeks due to Christmas break. The Saturday before he was to get back to school, however, he found himself hopelessly daydreaming. But not about Rukia. About Orihime, one of his best friends. They had gradually been growing closer. Ichigo struggled with himself in an internal battle. Did he like Orihime? Did he feel more towards her than the feelings one friend feels towards another? This greatly perplexed him, but what disturbed him more, was he could not answer the question.  
Thursday night, he called up his best friend Renji Abarai and told him about the internal conflict he had been having.  
"Every time I see her, I want to make her laugh and smile. I always want to spend more time with her, and it makes me sad when we say goodbye. And more than that, I feel fondness towards her that is more than a friend."  
Renji concluded that Ichigo did, in fact, like Orihime, but Ichigo didn't accept it. What was terrible though, was that at one point in the conversation, he found himself thinking: 'Oh my gosh, Orihime is so cute.' He told this to Renji, convincing him further that he liked Inoue. Sometime later, the friends hung up, and Ichigo headed towards school for an event that both he and Rukia were in together.  
That night Rukia broke up with him, telling him she needed some time to think about things. She handed back the ring he had given her for their one month anniversary, it was a replacement for the first one he had given her on their anniversary, which she had lost. She seemed to like the second one better, which Ichigo had no qualms about.  
"We'll still be friends, right?" Ichigo asked. Rukia nodded.  
"Give me a hug," Ichigo pleaded.  
Ichigo stepped forward, giving her a big hug. After their embrace, Rukia began to walk away. Ichigo followed, and as she was almost out the door, he called out her name. She turned halfway.  
"I love you," Ichigo said.  
He could swear he heard Rukia whisper "I love you too", but before he could be sure, she tuned and left the auditorium. Feeling numb, he called Renji up to tell him what had happened. He was in denial of the break up for the next few hours, and then, ultimately, he felt sorrow. It was a terrible sorrow, eating away all his emotions, leaving a huge gaping hole in his chest. Waking the following morning, Ichigo was a wreck. He cried and cried, the most he remembered crying in years.  
"She was my everything,' Ichigo realized. 'Without her, I am nothing but a shell of my former self.' This only brought more tears, and as they fell from his face, pain, sadness, and sorrow hit with the force of 1,000 tons. That was when he broke. He just couldn't stand it anymore.  
'I'm going back to bed,' Ichigo decided. After all, the event didn't start for another few hours. And with that decision, he cried himself to sleep.

* * *

Walking to lunch, Ichigo sat down at the table Rukia sat at, waiting for her. As she came, she announced they were going downstairs. That way she could hang out with all of her friends, as they sat outside of the lower level cafeteria. Following her down the stairs, he grasped her hand in his and told her he loved her.  
"I love you too," she replied cutely and cheerfully, taking him back to the first time they had said I love you . . .

* * *

They had been sitting together at lunch and he had been talking to her best friend, who he had told he was in love with Rukia.  
"So when do you think I should tell her?"  
Ichigo was startled, as Rukia said: "Tell me what? Oh, wait . . . let me guess. What you want to tell me is 'I love you'."  
"Well then it looks like I'll have to tell you at some point today now," Ichigo said with a grin. Silence ensued for a few seconds. Then Rukia turned to Ichigo.  
"I love you, Ichigo."  
Ichigo wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear.  
"I love you too, Rukia."

* * *

Sitting with Rukia, Ichigo could feel her hand warm in his. It felt good. Her hand was so welcoming, so full of love. Scooting closer, he pressed his body against hers, putting his head on her shoulder. He'd had so many good times with her. But there had been some bad times too . . .

* * *

After waking up from his sorrowful slumber, Ichigo realized now that he was single and could think about his feelings towards Orihime. But not now. He was too confused now. Maybe later in the day. As the sun begins to set and the day grows old, Ichigo comes to a realization. He is in love with two girls.  
Monday comes and he decides to confess to Inoue. The response was crushing. She liked him as a friend. Just a friend. But she is a great friend nonetheless.  
Later that day Ichigo receives a note from Rukia. It reads: Do you still love me?  
Ichigo wrote in reply : Hell ya! Every time I see you I melt inside. Later on he passed he a note. It read like this:  
Ichigo: Do you still love me?  
Rukia: Of course I do. I love you forever, remember?  
Ichigo: So are you finished thinking about things?  
Rukia: Asking if you still loved me was my way of asking you back out.  
Ichigo: So we're a couple again?  
Rukia caught Ichigo's eye and nodded with a smile. They continued passing notes, with Ichigo telling her how crushed he'd been when she'd broken up with him, the pain and sorrow he'd felt. At a later point, he wrote: So do you still want to make out with me? The answer came: Yes PLZ(;. Ichigo shot his eyebrows up and bit his tongue as his mouth formed an insane smile. He proceeded to asking her if she wanted her ring back, and got the same response.  
They were dating again. Ichigo had but one problem. Namely: Orihime Inoue. His feelings for her. But the weirdest thing happened. As he searched inside himself to confront his feelings, he couldn't find them. They were gone. Ichigo felt elated. This day couldn't have gone better.

* * *

The period after lunch on every other day was the period he and Rukia had together. They always looked at each other, flirting across the distance that separated them. They would mouth 'I love you' to each other, Ichigo would wink at her, they'd make faces, and last but not least they'd pass notes. Right after they mouthed 'I love you', Ichigo got Rukia's attention and mouthed 'I love you more.' This was something they used to say to each other when they first started dating.  
He passed a note to her saying:  
I think we've established that I love you more. But seriously, on the scale of 1-10, I love you at a 10. When she passed him her reply, however, the teacher saw it, and made Ichigo give him the note before Ichigo even had time to read it. The teacher did not read it, and gave it back to them when he let the class have some time at the end of the period to talk.

"I'm a 9" was what Rukia had written on the sheet of paper as her reply. Ichigo cracked a smile, and walked over to Rukia, who was unresponsive. Apparently she was mad about getting the note taken away, and acted very "icky" (in her own words) towards everyone. Reading between the lines, Ichigo left her alone for the remainder of the period. He conversed with his best friend Renji, who was also in the same class, instead.

When Ichigo tried walking Rukia to her class, she was still rather angry. She told him to go to class, and wouldn't hold his hand. She didn't seem to be in a mood to argue with him, so he did as he was told. He wouldn't be alone anyway, because Renji walked the same way as Ichigo did, so they walked to Renji's class together. Renji asked him why he wasn't with Rukia, walking her to class. Ichigo told him about how she was mad and everything.  
"I bet you enjoyed him taking that note away, didn't you Renji?" Ichigo smirked. "Yeah, but I would've enjoyed it more if he had read it out loud."  
"Why is that? I showed you what it said," Ichigo reasoned. " . . . And then you took it."  
"What? No I didn't! What is this 'note' you speak of?"  
"C'mon Renji, don't be dumb."  
"What, you're dumb? I know. Oh SNAP!"  
"Why, yes, I realize you are dumb Renji."  
After talking to Renji, Ichigo went up a floor to where he would wait out the rest of his school day in his last period classroom. Hopefully he wouldn't fall asleep, as the teacher was notorious for pouring water down the back of your neck if she caught you sleeping in her class. Quite frankly, Ichigo wasn't very much in the mood to have water poured down the back of his neck. Nonetheless, it didn't really matter what Ichigo wanted. It was more a question of what his body needed. And that was sleep. Ichigo was unable to pay attention, and slowly felt his eyelids closing and his head tilting back. He caught himself before he could fall asleep, and his fight with sleep continued through the rest of the period.  
After class, Ichigo went outside to hang out with his friends at one of the pillars outside of school, as he did every day. Today he talked to Hisagi. When they said farewell, Ichigo called after him.  
"Don't study too hard! Or at all! Go watch a movie!"  
In going home that day, Ichigo reflected on the movie he had watched the night before. In it, there was a necklace, and if you were in love with the person who put the necklace on you, it would glow a bright red. He began to wonder . . . what if such a necklace existed?  
If Rukia put it on him, he knew it would glow red. But what about Orihime? What about her? What if she put the necklace on him?  
'Damn it,' Ichigo thought. 'I'm indecisive again.'  
'Now I'm unsure as to whether I like Inoue again.'  
Ichigo remembered how when he and Rukia got back together his feelings for Orihime had suddenly vanished. Now he realized that they had never left him. He had just been so happy to be back with Rukia, and so overwhelmed with his love for her, it had buried the emotions he had been feeling for Inoue. And now . . . his emotions for Inoue had resurfaced.  
Feeling confused, Ichigo went to bed, drifting in and out of consciousness through the restless hours of the night.

* * *

PLEASE REVIEW ME!!! IT MEANS SOOOOO MUCH TO ME WHEN I GET A REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note

1. Some of the things in this story are different from the actual Bleach story, as you will find out when you get farther into the story.

2. I do NOT own Bleach or any part of it. Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo. If I did own Bleach, the storyline definitely would not be half as good, and I would've killed off half the characters, as well as adding some romance to the story.

* * *

1/27 - Wednesday

Ichigo woke with a start as his alarm clock blared to life. After shutting it off, he stumbled down the stairs to the kitchen and made himself a bowl of cereal with some orange juice. He put his earphones in and listened to his mp3 player to wake himself up. Then he thought about how he felt about Orihime. No matter how hard he thought about it, no matter how long he took to dwell on it, for the life of him, Ichigo could not decide as to whether or not he liked Orihime.

He joined up with Inoue and Hisagi in the morning. He had run into Rukia when he first came into school, and told her he was going to hang out with his friends. He asked her to come along, but she didn't want to. Inoue had to go downstairs for her first exam that day, so Ichigo walked her to the door to the first floor. He didn't walk her to the actual class because his was on the third floor and he wanted to be there early. He hadn't really studied for this exam, and hoped to get a good grade by copying off of the boy next to him. The exam went without a flaw, as the boy next to him never once covered his answers. Twice he almost caught Ichigo looking at his paper, but Ichigo averted his eyes quickly enough to escape detection. The kid was smart and had a good grade in the class, so Ichigo was relying on him doing well on the exam in order to raise his grade in the class.

After the exam was over, Ichigo hurried to Rukia's class in order to catch her in time to walk her to her second class of the day. He got there in time, and grabbing onto her hand, asked how her exam was. She told him it was ok.

"Listen, Ichigo, don't give me a hug when we get to my next class, because the hallways are really crowded and someone is going to run into us if you stop to give me a hug."

Ichigo agreed, despite thinking it was a weird request. They reached her next class moments later. As he was walking to his next class, Ichigo ran into his friend Nemu. She was walking with another one of her friends that Ichigo did not know. Since there was 10 minutes left before the next class, Ichigo and Nemu decided to wander the third floor, talking, until the late bell rang. They circled the third floor three times before thy went off to their respective classes.

The next exam Ichigo took that day was killer. He didn't know half of the answers, and ended up guessing his way through it. He finished just seconds before the bell rang to go home.

After school let out, Ichigo walked Rukia to her bus, kissing her farewell. He then walked to his father's car and hopped in. They drove to the library so Ichigo could use the computers there to do research for an essay that was due on Friday. However, as he looked through his belongings for the previous research he had done, he couldn't find it and realized he had left it at home. Approaching his father, Isshin Kurosaki, he explained to him the situation, and he proceeded to driving Ichigo home. When he got home, he entered the house to look for his research. His father stayed in the car, leaning his chair back and falling asleep.

Once he entered the house, he whipped out his cell phone and called Orihime. She picked up after a few rings.

"So how were your exams today Orihime?" asked Ichigo.

Orihime replied, and Ichigo went on to telling her how much of a pain the Foreign Shinigami Arts II exam was, as she was taking it the following day. They were all the same courses, but unfortunately only had one class together due to the fact that their schedules were mixed up.

Orihime groaned. "I have to take that one tomorrow."

Ichigo explained to her what the test consisted of, and warned her that she should study.

"Yeah . . . wish me luck in finding time for that." She chuckled. "I have an essay due in the History of Shinigami Arts tomorrow, and I haven't even started yet."

"Yeah, I have that essay too, but it's not due until Friday. I was just looking for my research / class notes on the subject - Oh, here they are!"

Ichigo's desk had been extremely messy, and although he had recently cleaned it up, and it was orderly enough; weirdly he had even more trouble finding what he was looking for. He told Orihime this, and she could completely understand what he was talking about, as she had the same problem. Another thing they learned they had in common was that they picked up certain things from other people, an example being Renji. He said "I suppose" all the time, and both of them, being his friends, had picked up on the saying.

They continued talking, and they home phone at Ichigo's house rang. Iqt was his father.

"Hold on a sec, Orihime, I have to put you down. My dad is calling the land line."

Picking up the phone, Ichigo was yelled at for taking so long, to which Ichigo lied, telling him that he had yet to find his research, and needed a bit more time, knowing that he was not supposed to be talking on the phone. About ten minutes later, Ichigo called Isshin from the land line, keeping his cell phone close so Orihime could hear the conversation.

"Yo, dad, this might take a while so why don't you go get yourself a burger or something?"

"I'd rather you hurried up and got back out here," Isshin said curtly, hanging up the phone.

After a few more minutes of talking to Orihime, he decided to broach a certain serious topic with her. He explained to her what he had been thinking about and what he had been feeling the night before.

"Well maybe the necklace would glow green," Orihime suggested.

"No, it only glowed red, actually." stated Ichigo. "But this indecision as to whether I like you or not is killing me, especially because I have Rukia. Although, if such a necklace actually existed and you were to put it on me it would probably flicker red."

After a few more minutes, Orihime had to go, because she needed to start writing her essay.

Ichigo went back outside to Isshin, and had him drive him back to the library. After a half-hour or so of doing research, Ichigo told his father he was going to go outside for a walk, as his legs were cramping up.

Once outside, he proceeded to call his friend Momo Hinamori. She was one of his best friends, and they had known each other since a few weeks into the school year. They had met when she came up to him and offered him some candy. He had been sitting alone, as he didn't know anyone in that lunch yet. Actually it was due mostly to the fact that he couldn't find anyone he knew.

He politely declined the candy. She sat down across from him and pouted.

"Aw man . . . you're the third person today to say 'no'."

After that, they formed a strong friendship, and grew closer and closer over time. Now they were best friends. རྫ Momo soon picked up her phone, and somehow they got on the topic of 'Battle Royale', a book in which a class of 21 girls and 21 boys were dropped off on an island. Each was given either a weapon, ir something to defend themselves with. Each person was equipped with a collar strapped to their neck, and if no one is dead within 24 hours, all the collars explode and everyone dies. Basically it's a survival of the fittest novel, which interested Ichigo greatly. You knew everyone but one person was going to die, but you just didn't know who it was that was going to survive, as well as how the others would die.

"Yeah, so they made a manga out of it, and I read it, but you wouldn't want to," said Hinamori.

"Why is that?" Inquired Ichigo.

"Just a sec . . . it's kinda hard to put into words, let me look up a description off of Wikipedia. Oh yeah . . . there's sexuality and stuff, as well as it's pretty much like a slasher manga, because they show everything. So yeah . . . there's this one girl, she's like a prostitute, and she lures the guys in with her "goods, and then chops them to pieces with her scythe."

"Oooh . . . that's gotta hurt. But you're right, I probably wouldn't want to read that."

"Oh, and there's this one guy who got like, a spork, as his weapon."

"A spork? Seriously? I mean, how are you going to kill someone with a spork? I mean, I suppose you could slit their throat, but . . ."

"Actually, he lasted rather long."

"How so?"

"Well, mostly he just hid and stuff. And then there was this one guy who got a machine gun, so he was shooting everyone. That's why it was kinda like a slasher manga."

"Oh my gosh . . . a machine gun?? That is so cool! Much better than a spork anyway . . . But when he went to sleep, couldn't you just sneak up, steal the machine gun, and shoot him with it?"

"No, because, he was, like, a black belt in every form of martial arts ever invented, so if you tried to sneak up on him, he'd beat you up and then shoot you. And besides, he had a bulletproof vest on, as well as a protective helmet."

"That is so not fair."

"No it is . . . there was this one guy who was only given a bulletproof vest, as well as a protective helmet with a visor, etc. So he's sitting there laughing as the guy with the machine gun tries to shoot him. You wanna know how he kills him?"

"He shoots him in his unprotected legs, and when the guy falls down, the one with the machine gun goes up to him, rips off his helmet, and shoots him?"

"No. He knocks him down and shoots him in the crotch."

"Ouch. That must have been painful."

A few minutes later, Ichigo had to go, because the temperature outside was below freezing, and he was not dressed very warmly, so he was shivering with cold. Once he went back inside, he got some more research, and then looked up a song Orihime had suggested to him. The name of the song was Raze! and the artist was Exodus. It was an explicit Trash Metal song. After listening to it, Ichigo decide he rather liked it. A few hours of research later, Ichigo was driven home, where he ate dinner. Afterwards, he stayed up, waiting for his mother to go to sleep, then snuck into the basement, and called Momo Hinamori on his cell phone. They talked and laughed from about 10:30 to 11:30.

Then at about 11:30, Ichigo's mom came downstairs, and wondered why he was in the basement with the door closed and the light on. Ichigo made up a lame excuse and went to bed shortly after.

* * *

Again, PLEASE review! It really means a lot to me!


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note

1. Some of the things in this story are different from the actual Bleach story, as you will find out when you get farther into the story.

2. I do NOT own Bleach or any part of it. Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo. If I did own Bleach, the storyline definitely would not be half as good, and I would've killed off half the characters, as well as adding some romance to the story.

* * *

1/28 - Thursday

Ichigo awoke with a yawn, and listened to his mp3 player through breakfast. After being driven to school, Ichigo, not finding Rukia anywhere, went to where he knew Orihime was.

"So how did you fare with your essay?" asked Ichigo.

"I had to stay up until 2 a.m. to finish it," responded Orihime.

"Yikes, that must've been rough."

"How are you doing on yours?"

"Well, I have all the research, but I haven't started the actual essay yet. I stayed up late talking to Momo."

"That wasn't very smart. You're going to be staying up pretty late tonight."

"Yeah I know . . . It probably wasn't the wisest move I could've made. How did you do in terms of studying for your Foreign Shinigami Arts II exam?"

"Well I was going to stay up all night to study for it, but I decided not to."

"You really should've . . . It's an extremely hard exam."

After their conversation, Ichigo, along with Hisagi, walked Orihime to her next class. The two exams Ichigo was taking that day were in his two easiest subjects. The first exam however, had a question that caught his interest. The question was: 'What are feelings of fondness that one friend feels for another?'

It was phrased along those lines, and it caught Ichigo's interest was that he was feeling that intense fondness towards Orihime. The answer to the question was 'attraction'. This meant, unfortunately for Ichigo, that he was very much attracted to Orihime.

Before approaching his next class, the class he had with Renji, his best friend, and Rukia, his girlfriend, he waited for Orihime outside of her classroom. They, along with one of her other friends, wandered the second floor until they had to go to their next classes. They said goodbye, and upon entering his next class, Ichigo spotted an empty seat between Renji and Rukia. Unfortunately for him, one of Rukia's friends was sitting there, but was not however, physically there at the moment. A few minutes later, as Ichigo was talking to Renji, he gave Ichigo a suggestion.

"Screw it . . . no one's sitting there now. Sit there until Rukia's friend gets back."

Ichigo sat down in the seat, and held Rukia's hand until her friend came back. After the exam, Rukia went over to play cards with a group of her friends. Unfortunately, there were no empty seats left around the table, so Ichigo took the liberty of playing Palace with his friends.

Afterwards, when he went looking for Renji, he came up to him, handing him a dark blue binder filled with loose leaf paper. It was Ichigo's diary.

"Here ya go Ichigo."

"You read my DIARY?" exclaimed Ichigo.

"Calm down, will ya? It's your own fault for leaving it lying around in your backpack like that."

"Renji . . ." Ichigo fumed.

"Oh . . . and December 4th was the day of boldness my ass!! You were afraid as shit to ask her out! You even had to have someone ask her if she liked you just to work up the courage to think about asking her out."

"Yeah, well, it didn't help thatyou were sitting behind me the whole time, telling me about how if Rukia and I ever went on a dat, you'd be following us the whole time."

"That doesn't matter. You were acting like a chicken anyway."

After their argument, since the teacher had said electronic devices were allowed, Ichigo decided to give Momo a call. She hadn't been at school that day.

The explanation for this was a simple one. Hinamori had been hit by a car when she was younger, and suffered from extremely painful headaches, causing her to miss school. The phone continued to ring, and the call went to her voicemail. Ichigo left a message, then handed the phone to Renji so he could leave a message.

"So Momo, I was just reading Ichigo's diary, and you would not believe some of the stuff he has written in there . Maybe you should read it sometime."

All the while Ichigo was yelling:

"No, shut up Renji! Momo, don't believe anything Renji says! He's delusional!!!"

Later in the class, Ichigo went back to Rukia, and they held hands, sharing the same seat. He then walked her to her bus, encountering Orihime along the way, and introducing the two to each other. Rukia was behaving strangely that day, and would not allow Ichigo to give her a hug before she entered her bus. Instead, she quickly walked up the steps to her bus without saying goodbye.

After school, on his way to the library, Momo called him back.

"Diary, eh? Well, I mean, to each his own, but this just further proves my point that you're dumb."

"What, you're dumb? I know."

Ichigo surfed the internet and talked to Momo from about noon to 2:45. When his mom arrived to pick him up, the first words out of her mouth were:

"Give me the phone."

Ichigo fished around in his pockets and dug out his cell phone, which handed to his mother. She explained to him that he had used 3216 minutes talking to his friends in the last six weeks, and how he had been talking to his friend at 11:30 the night before. She reminded him that he was not allowed to be talking on his cell phone, etc.

When he got home, Ichigo, feeling gloomy, and already in a bad mood, set off to the task of writing his essay, which was due the next day. In the end, he finished the essay at around midnight, and then he had to complete a review packet that was due the next day for a test grade in his last period class. He finished his packet within around two hours, and ended up going to bed at 2:15 am, exhausted.

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Please review and comment!


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note

1. Some of the things in this story are different from the actual Bleach story, as you will find out when you get farther into the story.

2. I do NOT own Bleach or any part of it. Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo. If I did own Bleach, the storyline definitely would not be half as good, and I would've killed off half the characters, as well as adding some romance to the story.

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1/29 - Friday

Ichigo awoke, feeling dead on his feet. He doubted any day could top the previous one. He ate breakfast, and set off for school. When he got there, and went to the place where Inoue usually hung out, she wasn't there. Isane, Yachiru, and Hisagi were there, however, and Yachiru was up against a wall.

"Hey that's my wall! Get off of it!" A female Shinigami kidded around.

"Your wall is flat!" remarked Yachiru.

"You're flat!" interrupted Isane

Yachiru detached herself from the wall and walked over to where Isane, Hisagi, and Ichigo were standing.

"Yeah, you're right. I probably am flat." Yachiru answered in reply.

A few more minutes passed, and Orihime still didn't come. All the sudden Ichigo felt like a hole was being bored in his chest, but instead of the usual emptiness associated with it, this one caused him great pain. It felt like he had been hit in the chest with a bowling ball. He made the awful actualization that all this was happening inside of him solely because of his friend Orihime Inoue. Ichigo made two realizations that morning:

1. He missed Inoue with a passion.

2. He was in love with her.

He Hisagi Orihime's phone number and had him text her, as Ichigo was not allowed to make phone calls due to the fact that he had gotten his cell phone taken away. Hisagi texted her saying : Ichigo's hair looks weird today. Ichigo did a face-palm and sighed. A few minutes later Ichigo and Hisagi got into a serious conversation.

"Hisagi, I miss Orihime so much!" Ichigo moaned, telling Hisagi his first, and then his second realization.

"I mean, how can you not like her, Shuhei? Even I'm falling for her and I have Rukia!"

"Whoever said I didn't like her?"

"Yeah, but if you really feel that way, ask her out. Are you shy or something? I mean, I know I am . . . "

"No, Ichigo, there's a difference between us. You're shy, I'm just too smart to try."

And with that, Ichigo and Hisagi went off to their classes. Ichigo's first exam was easy enough, but his second exam was absolutely brutal. It got to the point where as the bell rang, Ichigo still was not finished. The teacher was gracious enough to let anyone who did not finish stay after to finish, but they could not leave the room. Ichigo made an excuse about using the restroom, and went outside to hang out with his friends. As he went outside, he saw Rukia, along with her friend, walking to her bus. Ichigo hugged her in a surprise attack, and slid his hand gently in her grasp.

"Ichigo . . . I need to talk to you about something important." She paused. "I . . . don't want to go out with you anymore."

"Oh . . . well, I won't force you to do something you don't want to do. I just hope we can still be friends."

With Rukia answering yes, Ichigo ran at top speed back to where he and his friends hung out after school. He spotted Renji, and grabbed him around his neck on a whim. He quickly detached himself, and as he stood a few feet away, Ichigo saw Renji shift his body and aim a high kick at Ichigo's face, which he blocked. He thought Renji had been messing around, and was surprised to see Renji's other foot hurtling towards his face a split second later. It struck Ichigo square in the jaw, and he stumbled back a step, feeling a blinding numbness in his lower jaw line, which he knew would amount to serious pain in a short period of time.

"I don't like being grabbed, especially around the neck." Renji stated irritably.

A few moments afterwards, Ichigo's jaw was hurting like crazy, and he felt tears spring involuntarily to his eyes. Turning to Yachiru, who had been standing next to Renji the whole time, he said:

"You know what I really hate about fighting? When you're hit rather hard, your eyes start to water and it's so involuntary, not to mention that when it happens, people think you're crying."

Wiping the tears away from his eyes, Ichigo thought about Rukia. That was a big mistake. He felt like he was being run through by his own Zanpakutou.

"Renji, I think I'm about to cry."

"Oh, I'm sorry Ichigo. I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"No, it's not that. Rukia broke up with me a-fucking-gain." Ichigo said, bursting into tears, thankful that he had grown his hair long, as it partially hid his tears. But the tears eventually grew into sobs, and Ichigo could not control it anymore. He realized it was the first time in 3 years he had actually sobbed.

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Note that this chapter is not completely typed up yet. I have a total of 11 chapters right now, but cannot find time to type them up, with school and such. Again, as I say every chapter, PLEASE review me.


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